Jupiter's Great Red Spot is shrinking, but the cause remains a mystery
In short: For over 150 years, the Great Red Spot has been the solar system's most famous landmark. Now, it is rapidly changing shape and size. Scientists are racing to understand if this iconic storm is dying or simply evolving into something else entirely.
The Great Red Spot is a massive anticyclone in Jupiter's southern hemisphere, consistently blowing counterclockwise at speeds exceeding 200 miles per hour. While it has survived for centuries due to Jupiter's lack of a solid surface and its powerful jet streams, it has undergone a dramatic transformation. Measuring around 24,000 miles across during 1879, this tempest could accommodate three Earths placed adjacent to each other. The storm's dimensions had decreased notably before the 1979 Voyager flybys occurred. By 2016, its longitudinal extent had contracted from 40 degrees to just 14 degrees, leaving it barely wider than Earth.
Recent observations have revealed strange behaviors, including a 90-day squeeze-and-swell rhythm detected by Hubble and large red flakes peeling from its edges. One theory suggests the storm isn't actually dying; we may only be seeing the top cloud layer, while the deeper vortex remains intact. However, historical records provide a darker precedent. A "Permanent Spot" observed by Cassini in the 1600s eventually disappeared, and new research suggests it was likely a different storm than the one we see today.
A new study published in the journal Icarus offers a potential mechanism for this decline. Using 3D simulations based on the Explicit Planetary Isentropic-Coordinate (EPIC) model, researchers Caleb Keaveney, Gary Lackmann, and Timothy Dowling found that the Great Red Spot may rely on a "diet" of smaller, transient storms. Their simulations showed that these smaller storms actually strengthen the Great Red Spot; a decline in these smaller weather events could be the primary driver behind the giant storm's current shrinkage.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: Something Is Erasing Jupiter's Great Red Spot And Nobody Knows Why
- Also: A new explanation for Jupiter’s great, shrinking ‘Spot’
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